Inside the Producers Guild Awards with Spielberg and Jolie: ‘The Artist’ Wins Again

Inside the Producers Guild Awards with Spielberg and Jolie: 'The Artist' Wins Again

Stop the presses. "The Artist" has won the PGA's top prize for best theatrical motion picture. It will be hard to stop this train.

Steven Spielberg, George Clooney, Viola Davis, Melissa McCarthy were on hand for Saturday night's 2012 Producers Guild Awards at the Beverly Hilton. In addition to the competitive film awards — which produced no upsets or surprises — the PGA honored pre-announced awardees Les Moonves with the Milestone Award, Don Mischer with the Norman Lear Achievement Award in Television, Stan Lee with the Vanguard Award, and Angelina Jolie's "In the Land of Blood and Honey" the Stanley Kramer Award.

No Surprise: 'The Artist' for Best Motion Picture

Thomas Langmann took the stage solo to accept the award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures, saying of director Michel Hazavanicius: "When you were dreaming of writing a love letter to American cinema, we never dreamed that in return we would get a taste of the American dream."

'Tin Tin' for the Win:

"Tin Tin" won the animation prize, and producers Steven Spielberg and Kathleen Kennedy (sans Peter Jackson) accepted the award with an under-30 second acceptance speech. This wasn't the only moment of the evening for Spielberg onstage, as he also accepted the David O. Selznick Award for Excellence in Theatrical Motion Pictures. "I love what this guild has become, because it now recognizes the producer as an indispensable necessity in the world of motion pictures," he said, adding an anecdote about his wife Kate, who a few days prior to the Producers Guild Awards had "completely innocently asked if David O. Selznick was Irish." Spielberg joked that Selznick was in fact "the other 'ish.'"

Angelina Jolie Accepts the Stanley Kramer Award:

After being introduced by Morgan Freeman as "producer, director, writer and woman of my dreams," a visibly moved Angelina Jolie took the stage to accept the Stanley Kramer award. Speaking to the audience and also pointedly to Spielberg she said, "In the early '90's, great filmmakers were standing on stages like this being recognized for "Schindler's List"… We meant it when we said 'Never again.' But at that same time in film history, the war in Bosnia was in full force – concentration camps, rape camps, and mass executions. And the world turned a blind eye. The cast of 'Blood and Honey' were all personally affected by that war… This [award] belongs to them, and in honoring [this film] you honor them."